Quotes of the Week: 'I Don't Even Eat Rice'

April 27, 2013

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From the Elvis impersonator who was accused of a poisonous plot against the president to resilient spirit in Boston to tragedy at a garment factory in Bangladesh, click through to see the moments that made news this week.

ABCNEWS.com

'I Don't Even Eat Rice.'

An Elvis impersonator who was accused of a poisonous plot against the president was released from jail this week.

Kelly Willard was thrilled when she finished the Boston Marathon. Her cell phone was dead, but she was excitedly waiting to reunite with her husband and kids in the family meeting area two blocks from the finish line.

Then two bombs went off, Willard didn't know where her family was and began to have flashbacks to another terrifying event she and her husband had experienced -- the Virginia Tech catastrophe in 2007.

"There's very few times that you have terror set in, but in my life I remember feeling a certain way during the massacre -- just sheer terror -- and feeling that way at Boston, not knowing what was happening," Willard told ABCNews.com. "I definitely had flashbacks to Virginia Tech."

Willard, 32, and her husband Ryan Willard, 34, live in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, with their two young daughters but have found themselves in the middle of national tragedies not once but twice in their lives.

'We Truly Believe He Has Been Set up and That There is Not Enough Evidence to Incriminate Him.'

Boston has rallied around its police and victims of the Marathon bombing, but there are thousands of people who are rallying around Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused carrying out the atrocity.

"We truly believe he has been set up and that there is not enough evidence to incriminate him," said the Facebook group "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Is Innocent," which has more than 12,000 members.

On Twitter, the hashtag #FreeJahar, the nickname Tsarnaev goes by, has gained traction. A Change.org petition addressed to President Obama has garnered more than 6,000 signatures, saying Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who died in a gun battle with police, are "wrongfully accused of something they did not do."

'It Tells Us That Despite All the Promises and Pledges From the Retailers, That Nothing Has Changed.'

The reported death toll from a Bangladesh building collapse climbed to nearly 350, with scores of garment workers believed to be missing as rescue crews pulled more bodies from the rubble.

There were reports that rescuers have pulled 40 people out alive from the rubble of the eight-story structure, which had been home to four garment factories.

The deadly collapse is the latest in a string of devastating incidents at garment factories in Bangladesh, including a fire last year that killed 112 workers. Bangladesh is the second-largest exporter of clothing to the United States behind China, and U.S. retailers continued to be drawn to the country for manufacturing because the production costs are so low, experts said.

Advocates for the workers have led an increasingly vocal campaign in Bangladesh demanding safer working conditions, and have been pushing major American retailers including Wal-Mart and Gap to do more to insure that factory owners are not cutting corners to reduce costs.

"It tells us that despite all the promises and pledges from the retailers, that nothing has changed," said Scott Nova, of the Worker Rights Consortium, a group that has been lobbying U.S. retailers to do more on safety in Bangladesh.

Most parents believe their child is the smartest kid in the class, but when Robert Dorman says this, he's likely right.

His son, 5-year-old Gus Dorman, with an IQ of 147, became one of the youngest members admitted to Mensa, the exclusive high IQ society.

Now in kindergarten, Gus is already reading such books as "Charlotte's Web," while his classmates work on mastering the ABCs.

Dorman first noticed Gus' advanced intelligence when he started to potty train his son at 18-months. Gus started to bring a newspaper to read on the toilet, and was also reading his father's copies of "Wired" magazine.

Since Gus was their first child, Dorman and his wife, Kotomi, simply thought this was how all children acted.
"We didn't realize he was gifted," said Dorman. "We just thought he was like all kids."